Department for Countering Misconduct

Within the powers of the Bank of Russia, the Department for Countering Misconduct discourages, detects, curbs, and suppresses misconduct in the financial market, thus combating the misuse of insider information and market manipulation, as well as the illegal operation of financial pyramids and persons offering services without appropriate licences or not put on relevant registers.

The Department’s key task is to provide methodological, organisational, and information and analytical support of the Bank of Russia’s activity in combating the misuse of insider information and market manipulation. The Department monitors compliance with the bans and restrictions established by dedicated laws.

The Situation Centre for Monitoring Exchange-Trading Markets, established within the Department, carries out continuous monitoring of the situation in the course of exchange trading, reveals transactions having signs of misconduct, and supplies up-to-date information to the Bank of Russia’s management. The Department analyses the development of high-frequency and algorithmic trading institutions, and studies their influence on the course of exchange trading.

Other essential tasks of the Department are to ensure the fair pricing of financial instruments, foreign currencies, and commodities at exchange trading in the Russian Federation.

The operations of illegal players in the financial market are detected using a regional model. In addition to the Department, this model also comprises the sections countering illegal activity of all Bank of Russia Main Branches and the Competence Centres in Krasnodar and Khabarovsk. The key objective of the Bank of Russia in this area is to inform competent executive authorities and law enforcement bodies about detected illegal players in the financial market in order to suppress their illicit operation.

The Department coordinates information exchange with foreign financial market regulators in the course of inspections of possible violations in financial markets, including within the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO MMoU) and other financial market agreements concluded by the Bank of Russia with foreign financial market regulators.